Lee Su-jin
Overview
Lee Su-jin (이수진) is one of the most common personal names used in Korea, formed by combining the surname Lee (李) and the two-syllable given name Su-jin. It is particularly common among women born between the 1970s and 1990s, and because people with the same name exist across many fields such as politics, entertainment, sports, academia, and law, the name alone cannot identify a specific individual without context. This document covers the composition and statistical characteristics of the name itself, as well as representative namesakes and the conventions for distinguishing them.
Main Content
Composition and Meaning of the Name
Lee Su-jin is divided into two elements: surname and given name. As a surname, 李 (plum Lee) is overwhelmingly common, and 異 (different Lee) and 伊 (that Lee) are rarely used. The given name Su-jin is in turn made up of the two syllables su and jin, and its meaning varies greatly depending on the combination of Hanja.
- Su (秀·洙·修·壽·守·水): 秀 means 'outstanding', 洙 means 'waterside', 修 means 'cultivate', 壽 means 'life/longevity', 守 means 'protect', and 水 means 'water'.
- Jin (珍·眞·鎭·振·進·辰·津): 珍 means 'treasure', 眞 means 'true/sincere', 鎭 means 'press down/calm', 振 means 'rouse/display', 進 means 'advance', 辰 means 'star/time', and 津 means 'ferry/ford'.
The most common combinations are 秀珍 (outstanding and precious treasure) and 秀眞 (outstanding and true/sincere), while 洙珍 and 修眞 are also used. In some cases, the name is registered as the pure Korean sound 'Su-jin' without Hanja, and Hangul names can be legally reported at birth without issue.
Statistical Characteristics
The surname Lee is the second most common surname in Korea after Kim (金), and is known to account for about 15% of the total population. As such, the combination Lee Su-jin has a large population base. The given name Su-jin frequently ranked in the upper range of girls' names in the 1970s-1990s and is especially often found among women of that generation. On the other hand, after the 2000s, as newborn naming preferences shifted toward short and soft names, pure Korean names, and one-syllable names, the ranking of Su-jin is analyzed to have declined distinctly. In other words, this name has the character of a signature showing the naming tastes of a particular generation.
Representative Namesakes
Because there are many people with the same name, encyclopedias, news outlets, and portals have established the convention of adding an occupation or birth year in parentheses to document titles or article notation to distinguish them. For example, 'Lee Su-jin (politician)', 'Lee Su-jin (actor)', 'Lee Su-jin (writer)', and the like. Notably, the politician Lee Su-jin (a former labor activist) who served as a proportional representative in the 21st National Assembly is well known, and beyond this, people with the same name are active in various fields such as broadcasting, acting, voice acting, sports, and research. Because of this, the problem of namesakes being mixed up in search results frequently occurs.
Cultural Context
The fact that it is a common name itself has become material for popular culture. In variety shows and dramas, Lee Su-jin is mentioned as a representative example of an 'ordinary name that could be found anywhere', and it has actually been used as a character name in several creative works. In addition, situations where namesakes overlap in class rosters or company organization charts and must be distinguished as 'Lee Su-jin A', 'Lee Su-jin B', and so on are talked about as a common anecdote in Korean society.
Latest Trends
As of 2024-2025, naming trends for newborns in Korea are leaning further toward shorter and more individual names, pure Korean names without Hanja, and one-syllable names, so the frequency of newborn use of traditional two-syllable names such as Su-jin continues to remain low. At the same time, changes in the search environment are also notable. As large portals and AI search and chatbots summarize personal information, error cases in which the careers of different namesakes are mixed together when only the name is entered are repeatedly pointed out. Accordingly, in wiki-style documents and public databases, the method of also indicating identifiers (occupation, birth year, affiliation) has effectively become standard. In addition, with stronger personal information protection, it has become more difficult to identify an individual by name alone in public data, and this acts as a factor that rather increases the need for namesake documents.
Related Topics
- [[Korean personal names]]
- [[Naming]]
- [[Namesakes]]
- [[Lee (surname)]]
- [[Population and Housing Census]]
- [[Privacy protection]]